My First 5K Run

The 34th Milo Marathon was truly an unforgettable running event for me. I woke up early at 3am and had light breakfast at Mc Donald's. I wasn't hungry but I just forced myself to eat. I was thinking that if I was going to faint during the race, I wouldn't want the reason to be just simple hypoglycemia! :) By 4:30 am, my friends and I were off to the venue.

My friend parked her car near one of the hotels along Roxas Boulevard because we were worried that we wouldn't be able to get a parking space near the venue. ( It was only after the race that we realized that the car was parked 2km from the starting line...ha!ha!)

While my friends and I were walking along Roxas Boulevard, a sea of "real runners" passed by. The 21k and 42 K marathon started already. I easily spotted Coach Rio with his Afro hair and neon yellow shirt among a pack of "green" runners. Too bad I wasn't able to get a picture!

We arrived at the check-in area a few minutes after and there were a lot of people already. And I mean A LOT! :) According to the organizers, there were 27,000 participants and 20,000 of them registered for the 5k run!!! It was like attending the World Youth Day all over again!!!

There wasn't a big high-tech countdown. The runners were asked to have 2 minutes of silence (which was futile because the teeners were chatting away and not paying attention! ha!ha!) and then there was a single gunshot which marked the start of the race.

Over-all, my first 5K run was fun! I didn't feel the pressure since my sister accompanied me the whole time. ( She would have finished the race in 30 minutes but she stayed with me .) I lacked training for this event actually so I knew that I would be definitely slower than my previous races. It was 70% walking and 30% running for me. The road was also too crowded so even if I decided to speed up, it was useless since it's impossible to run without bumping into someone. As I've said, there were a lot of teeners in the race. Some of them carried MILO banners. Some even took a short cut, climbing the street barrier so that they can be with their classmates who were already on their way back to the finish line. I thought that they were just required by their school to join the event and were not really into running. (And I was right! My sister found out later that day that there were schools who required their students to attend the MILO run!).

The funny part about the whole race were the drinking stations. I had to experience pouring Gatorade in my cup from a huge container. If it wasn't for my fear of collapsing due to dehydration, I would have passed all the stations without drinking! :) But still, I'm not complaining. I just paid P100 for this event so I totally understand if the event lacked manpower.

Lastly, I thought the starting line was the finish line too. My sister and I slowed down when we passed the sign and followed the others by walking. We then realized afterwards that the finish line was still about half kilometer away! But I was still grateful that my sister and I finished the race within the one-hour curfew! :)

After the race, we didn't get our free MILO drink. We didn't fall in line to get other free stuff. We also didn't get to have our after-the-race picture taking. It was too hot. It was too crowded. And we were too tired! :) We walked back to where my friend parked her car...that was another 2 km of cool-down! ha!ha! When you think about it, we were able to walk-run a distance of 9k! That only meant one thing....we could do 10K someday! :)

Walking towards the starting area...

Race Map

Sunrise in Luneta

MILO's Zorro

5K Check-in Area

Trying to get close to the starting line....
pero malayo pa rin :(

MILO Walkathon :)

The turn near Manila Yacht Club -
How can you run in this crowd?

I really thought we were already near the finish line...

At last... I made it! :)

Falling in line just to hand-in the runner's bar code
and get the MILO certificate.

MILO stage